(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to measuring friction on a physical surface, preferably a roadway, where a measuring device on wheels is pulled by a traction vehicle. One of the wheels of the measuring device is braked during driving, so that this wheel provides slip against the surface.
For the office in charge of roads (in Norway, the Public Roads Administration or the municipalities), there is a requirement that roads must exhibit a friction minimum value between the roadway and a car wheel. This is particularly important in winter. A standardized method of measuring has been established, namely with a fixed slip value and with measurement in a wheel track. This is to be documented, with respect to contracts, by the office in charge of roads as well as the contractor.
Friction measurement is simple in theory, but difficult to execute in practice. Measuring devices available today are complicated and expensive, and in most cases they are adapted to airports, with a measuring wheel mounted between the wheel tracks of the traction vehicle. This is a set-up poorly adapted for use in a road, since the traction vehicle/the car must drive outside the usual tracks in order to place the measuring wheel in a wheel track. In other words, there is a need of a measuring device better adapted to the situation in a normal road.
(2) Description of the Related Art
A measurement principle relied on by several previously known measuring devices has two wheels connected to each other by means of a chain or similar, where one wheel is a “pilot wheel” rotating with a periphery speed equal to the driving speed, that is without slip, and where the other wheel is braked to a slip value (which means that this other wheel skids on the roadway and has a lower periphery speed than the driving speed). Since the two wheels are connected to each other, a “break” will arise between the two wheels, which “break” can be measured in the chain (or another force/moment transfer means) by means of a load cell.
Related art is known from British patent number 1,269,334, DE “Offenlegungsschrift” 2742110 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,073, all disclosing devices for measuring friction on a road surface, using two wheels. The wheels are arranged in a frame, a box or a housing, and they are typically arranged on one and the same shaft. The wheels rotate with different rotation speeds against the underlying road surface.
Because the two wheels are arranged beside each other on one and the same shaft, they are actually not capable of measuring friction precisely in one wheel track. And in the closest one of these publications, namely U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,073, which uses a measurement principle that lies rather close to the one used in the present invention, with measurement of load in a force/moment transfer means between two connected wheels with a “transmission ratio”, no device has been disclosed to ensure that one of the two wheels, namely the “pilot wheel” intended to roll without slip, will actually be unable to have slip. With the solution in U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,073, it seems clear that in certain situations, one may have a “return” reaction moment to the pilot wheel, resulting in a slip situation for this wheel also. A rather unfavourable instability will then be induced in the measurements.
Further, Japanese publication JP 4,102,034 discloses a friction measurement device in which two wheels are mounted behind each other in a frame, for measurement in one wheel track.